Power Player
by Narissa
Summary: TK's life was better than he ever thought it could be. Great friends, loving brother, and the perfect girlfriend. But an unexpected phone call from Matt would change the rest of his life.


Okay, so TK and Kari are 15, Matt and the rest are 18. So, we're a couple of years past Season 2's end. Cool? Cool.

I know this isn't what happened in the series, but for the story's sake—the digimon all went back to the real world, okay? It's complicated.

Really wishing I could list this under more than one pairing/category. Breakdown:

TK/Matt—Hurt/Comfort

TK/Kari—Friendship/Romance

TK/Davis—Friendship

Review! But be gentle...I've _technically_ never written TK before.

- N

* * *

It was Sunday, but it wasn't his turn—which meant 14-year-old Takeru didn't have to bring the food. He was fine with that—less time making food meant a few more minutes trying to beat the last damn level on one of his exceptionally violent but ever-so-addictive video games that Kari bought him for Christmas.

Every Sunday afternoon, TK and Kari would go have lunch at the park between their houses. He brought the food last week—it was Kari's turn.

_She makes better sandwiches anyways._

The ones he made never held together very well—they'd be all lopsided and gross. When it was his turn, he usually just brought all the ingredients, then went early and made them there so they didn't get a chance to fall apart on the way.

He hit the block button, while his character got kicked in the face. TK grimaced, and kept trying to block. The opponent had a sword—TK's character wasn't armed. He wasn't very good at the game, but he was trying. He knew exactly why Kari bought it, too—Tai was good at it, and she knew that if TK was good at it, he could teach her—then she could surprise her big brother by beating him. TK liked the plan. It meant he got to play video games, and spend time with Kari. As good as it gets.

He frowned as he saw his character's head flop off, a fountain of animated blood comically shooting out of it.

"Ugh!" he heard his mother's voice behind him. "How can you _play_ those?"

TK shrugged, stifling a grin.

_Must be a boy thing. Or maybe the freaking out's a girl thing?_

"It's all just pretend, mom." He replied.

"Just don't start playing with knives or I'll show Kari your baby pictures." She teased.

He grinned—it was a threat she made often, that fortunately, she'd never followed through on. TK didn't like his baby pictures—he had been a rather chubby baby—there was actually a picture of a young Matt literally rolling him across the floor—though luckily, TK had the only known copy of that one.

TK didn't need to look over his should to see that she'd left the room—he heard her step on that one floorboard that made a creaking noise in his room.

His mom seemed to have completely repressed all of her sons' time in the digital world. If TK or Matt were so desperate for attention, they might have minded. But it kept life simple, and TK was okay with that. They had each other. And TK had Kari, and Matt had Sora. Life had been admittedly good for TK the last few years. Even with all the life-and-death save-the-world stuff—it had been fun. He had friends. His mom and dad hadn't gotten back together, but still…he was happy. Happier than he thought possible, even.

TK's best friend was Davis Motomiya. Before their adventures together, TK wasn't crazy about him, to say the least. But after being in a few dozen life-or-death fights, they'd become close. Something that kept them apart for a long while was Kari, of course…not that it was ever deliberate, but it took some time for Davis to move on from the infatuation. And when he had, it was like magic—_everything_ was great. The three of them could hang out and it wouldn't be weird—they could even talk to each other for advice on girls.

Davis was at TK's house more often than TK was at Davis's—it was a mutual agreement. From their experience, TK being in Davis's home led to Davis's older sister trying to get information about Matt. One of the first times it'd happened, TK didn't realize how—delicate—she was, and he just said that Matt was in a very committed relationship with Sora. According to Davis, she'd cried for a week—not a scenario that TK was willing to repeat.

The school year had gone well, but he was glad that summer would almost be approaching. Then again, that meant exams would be in a few weeks. He was doing well in all his classes—which was almost a bad thing, because it meant he had to score nearly perfect on his exams if he wanted his mark to go up at all—which was probably not happening. His dad was both encouraging and discouraging at the same time—if TK had a ninety percent in a course, his dad wanted to know where the other then percent went. His mom, on the other hand, never seemed to ask.

TK lived with his mother, and lived relatively stress-free because of it—because of living with the under-protective parent. His dad wasn't so—harsh with Matt, at least. TK got along with both his parents—Matt, however, barely spoke to their mother. Not because he didn't love her, TK was sure, but because neither of them ever knew what to say. They both unintentionally seemed to put TK in the middle most of the time, but he didn't mind if it meant the two of them would at least get _some_ communication between each other.

_Speaking of which…_

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket between the game's loading time. Low battery. TK bit his lip—he was _sort of_ expecting a call. His dad had been out of town for a week, and he was supposed to be getting back that evening—and TK was supposed to go over there for dinner. Matt was cooking, so the food was guaranteed to be good.

And Matt typically avoided phoning the house, since there was a chance of awkward-phone-talk between him and their mom. TK mentally shrugged and turned the phone off. If Matt needed to talk to him, his instant-messenger was open on his computer.

He heard the phone ring, and instinctively reached for it, but his hand found nothing but air. The handset was in the living room, with his mom.

_Well, that was right on cue._

TK stood up as his character was decapitated once more. He shut it down and headed towards the living room, and his mom met him in the hallway halfway.

"For me?" he asked, feeling a little stupid since he already knew the answer.

"Yep." His mom nodded, handing him the phone. "It sounds like Davis."

"Okay. Thanks." He held the phone to his ear, and turned back to his room. "Hello?"

"I'm going slightly mad." Davis said, clearly frustrated. "I don't understand what they're asking us for the last question in our math homework."

TK raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you do your math homework?"

"Hilarious." Davis muttered sarcastically. "I mean it. Really. You should go on tour. Then make it huge, get hooked on coke, and overdose in an alley."

Had his friend been in the room with him, TK would have made a face. But on the phone he was defeated, and he sat at his desk, trying to find his homework. At last, he presented a few sheets of lined paper, with a few unsightly creases from having random things piled on top of it over the weekend.

TK looked at the last question, number 14, part H. He then looked at the nine questions before.

"Number 14? It's the same as all the ones before it, it's all just about probability and proportion." TK said, hoping he hadn't been doing something wrong.

"What?" Davis sounded confused. "That's not what it's—"

Something clicked.

"What page are you looking at?" TK asked suddenly.

"674." Davis answered.

TK winced, looking down at the assignment sheet. "The homework was 647."

"Oh, _fuck. Me._" Davis cursed loudly. TK could hear Davis's mother scold him in the background, but Davis seemed to be ignoring her. "How long did it take you?"

It had taken him quite a while. "Uh, not _that_ long," TK lied, trying to cushion the blow, before suddenly getting an idea. "I'm heading out past your place pretty soon, I can drop off mine if you want. It takes longer to figure out what formulas to use, so if you want to use it as a guide it shouldn't take you so long."

The school would see it as cheating, but TK didn't—he knew Davis wouldn't copy it answer-for-answer, he trusted him enough. And his friend _had_ made the effort to do the homework, he'd just—done the wrong page. Hell, TK'd probably be asking Davis for help when they actually got to that page.

"You're my hero." Davis declared.

"I know." TK answered with false seriousness. "I'll be by in fifteen?"

"Cool." Davis answered. "See you then."

"Yeah." TK replied, turning the phone off, setting it on his desk—but only for a second before he picked it up and started back towards the living room—his mom scolded him frequently for leaving the handset in his room.

"How's Davis?" his mom asked.

"Just loving his math homework." TK grinned. "I'm gonna go show him how to do it."

"Well, that's nice." His mom smiled. "You going to be late?"

TK hesitated. "Uh, yeah, I'm meeting Kari, then I'm probably having dinner at Davis's." he lied.

"Okay. Call if you're spending the night?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yep, of course."

As he turned back to his room, he sighed a little. He didn't like having to lie to her, but he also didn't like the looks she gave him if he were to say he was having dinner with his dad and Matt. TK and Matt both made a point not to mention one parent in front of the other—both of them hated listening to one parent complain about the other.

TK knew they both tried to keep both him and Matt comfortable, but every now and then one would blurt something out about the other.

But he managed. Because aside from the homework he didn't like, the video games he wasn't good at, or a few awkward moments every now and then—life was good. Stable. Normal.

He rummaged through his desk trying to find the homework he'd promised Davis. His printer was on, and he could have easily made a photocopy of it, but he trusted Davis enough that it wouldn't be a problem.

After making sure the pages were in order, he opened his binder and took out that day's notes, too. TK's printing was a whole lot easier to read than Davis's, so he hoped his friend would find it helpful.

He looked around his room quickly, trying to think of anything he was missing.

_Notes. Wallet. Phone…check._

TK was pretty sure he was forgetting _something_, but he doubted it could have been very important. He folded the papers up and stuffed them into his back pocket. It was hot out, so he didn't bother bringing a jacket.

He waved to his mom on the way out the door.

"Have fun." She called.

"Will do. Love you." He said back with a smile.

Davis's house wasn't far—it was a nice day, and TK enjoyed walking, so naturally, he was in a good mood. The streets weren't all too busy—being Sunday, a lot of things were closed.

_Damn it._

His mind clicked in, and he recalled what he should have remembered to bring: his mp3 player.

_Oh, well._

TK continued to walk down the street before something interesting happened—a puppy charged towards him. TK loved dogs, so he didn't bother thinking about _why_ there was a random husky running at him.

He knelt down and petted the dog playfully, while it eagerly tried to climb onto his knee to lick his face. He continued to play with the dog for several seconds before an out-of-breath little girl ran up to them, brandishing a leash.

She was young, probably eight or nine. Long black hair, a bandana overtop of it.

TK just grinned. "Got away from you, huh?"

"Yeah." She breathed heavily as the dog rolled onto its back for TK to rub its stomach.

The girl applied the leash and the dog leapt to its feet, ready to run—or more likely _walk_ again.

"I'm so sorry!" the girl suddenly exclaimed, indicating TK.

TK looked down, and noticed three paw prints of dirt—two on his shorts, one at the bottom of his shirt. He smiled at her reassuringly.

"Don't worry about it." TK said with a smile that seemed to calm the girl down. "He was just being friendly."

She still seemed upset at the mess, though. "Are you sure?"

He flashed a thumbs-up.

"Uh huh." He nodded. "But you better get going if you're gonna tire him out." He added with a grin.

"Y—yeah, okay!" she finally agreed, breaking into a jog, the puppy running alongside her.

TK kept walking to Davis's house, pulling the papers from his pocket as he approached the door, unfolding them after he knocked.

A tired and clearly frustrated Davis answered the door.

"Special delivery." TK reported cheerfully, hoping to get to Davis, who clearly was not in the mood.

"You look like crap." Davis replied, indicating the dirt stains on TK's clothing.

_Okay, that wasn't as fun as I'd hoped it would be._

TK's expression sank. "Think Kari'll mind?"

"Probably." Davis nodded. "Girls are picky like that."

"I guess you're right." TK admitted, before looking at Davis hopefully. "Got some clothes you wanna lend me?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

TK followed Davis to his room, waving at his parents on the way in. TK was pretty well-liked by them. Davis had started to do better in school around the time that he and TK started hanging out so often, so they actually gave TK the same amount of credit they gave Davis. TK felt guilt about it, too—he rarely helped or even encouraged Davis to do his homework—except for the occasional time that Davis would do the wrong_ page_—but how often would _that_ happen?

"You pick your courses for next year?" Davis asked casually, pulling open the middle drawer of his dresser.

"Not yet." TK admitted, ruffling through Davis's clothes. "You?"

"Plenty of computer stuff." Davis replied. "As per Cody's orders. You should take some too. Might be fun if the three of us are there."

He thought about it a moment. It really _would_ be. He didn't have nearly enough classes with his friends in the semester that was ending…he'd _made_ plenty of friends, sure, but he hadn't had any classes with Ken or Cody—he'd had two with Yolei, and just math class with Davis and Kari.

Most of the courses he was finishing were the mandatory ones the school picked _for_ you…but in the fall, they'd be taking more elective courses. It certainly improved the odds of being with some of his friends.

"Yeah, I think I will." TK agreed as he finally settled on a pair of dark blue camouflage shorts. "Can I borrow these?"

"Yeah, go for it." Davis shrugged, clearly not caring as he sat down at the desk and started reading over TK's notes.

TK got changed quickly, folding up his pants and setting them in the corner out of the way. He still had the dirty paw print on his shirt, and he glanced at the dresser and then to Davis, who was distracted by the homework.

"Shirts in the top drawer, or am I just going to find massive amounts of porn there?" TK asked carefully.

"Shirts in the top drawer." Davis confirmed, not looking back at him. "Porn's in the bottom one."

TK held in the laugh, not exactly willing to either believe or disbelieve Davis's claim. He really wasn't as hot-headed as he used to be—which kept things interesting since it meant he'd become a lot better at messing with TK.

He looked through the shirts, trying not to mess up the fact that they'd been carefully folded. Remembering it was hot, he reminded himself that something light-colored might help him deal with the sunlight better—especially since he was going to be _out_ in the sun.

He found a white t-shirt with a black tribal pattern on the upper-right chest that went over the shoulder.

"Hey, this shirt's pretty cool." TK declared, Davis turning around to see what he was talking about. "Where'd you buy this?"

Davis just grinned. "Heh. You know how Yolei's going through that style-obsession right now?"

TK nodded. Yolei was a fad-hopper. Not that she bought into trends easily, she really just set her own—in other words, she went through a lot of hobbies, and very quickly. Not because she was bad at anything—she actually was pretty talented at whatever she set herself to. Maybe she was just _too_ talented.

Most recently, she'd turned her attentions on style—makeup, clothing design, hairstyling. Which meant that when Yolei was looking for a guinea pig, TK avoided her like the plague. He missed her _baking_ fad. TK'd never eaten so many delicious snacks in his entire life.

"Well, she drew the picture on her computer, printed it out, made it into a stencil, and spray painted it onto the shirt." Davis explained.

TK was impressed, but was then distracted by his realization.

"You're getting _clothes_ out of this?" TK asked. "All I'm getting is the demand that I should let her put makeup on me."

TK shook his head while Davis snickered and turned back to his desk.

He changed shirts quickly, before folding his own shirt and putting it on top of the pants in the corner.

"Okay, gonna go meet Kari now." TK said after looking at the clock on Davis's wall. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, for sure. Thanks again." Davis said sincerely. "You're welcome to crash here tonight if you're around."

TK'd slept over there a few times on school nights—it was a shorter walk to the school itself by about fifteen minutes. TK _liked _walking, just not in the mornings when he'd still rather be in bed.

"Dinner with the brother tonight." TK declared. "But I'll try to take you up on that."

"Well, you know where I live."

They could have talked for longer, but TK knew he needed to get going if he was going to be on time. He waved goodbye to Davis's parents on his way out, hurrying out the door. He was halfway down the street when he heard Davis yelling at him.

He turned to see his friend running up to him in socked feet, a humorous bounce in his step as he tried to avoid stepping on rocks.

"Something wrong?" TK asked.

Davis extended his hand, presenting two items—TK's wallet and cell phone.

_Ah, damn._

TK must have set them on the dresser before he got changed.

"And _I'm_ the one who does the wrong page of homework." Davis sighed, shaking his head at TK with false-disappointment in him.

"Thank you, Saint Davis." TK said appreciatively, stuffing both objects into his pockets.

Davis turned and started hobbling home, TK grinning at the image as he hurried to meet with Kari.

He made it to the park _just_ in time—he could see Kari setting out the blanket.

TK jogged up to her, giving her a powerful kiss on the cheek as he approached.

"Hey." He said simply, smiling.

She looked him over, grinning. "Wow…you look good, _Davis_."

_Girls need to stop noticing what clothes belong to whom._

"Yeeeah…" TK murmured. "There was an incident on the way over that involved me getting trampled by a pack of two dozen dogs that were owned by a bunch of scary biker guys. It's a wonder I survived, actually."

_Or one puppy owned by a little girl. Details, details._

Kari giggled at the story. "Well, I'm sure you were very brave."

TK looked at her backpack, which she hadn't opened yet—and three white plastic bags next to it—she couldn't _possibly_ have brought that much food… "So what are we eating?"

Her face lit up, and when someone like Kari looked excited, it was infectious, and meant everyone _else_ couldn't help but be excited _with_ her.

"A bunch of carrots with celery and dip to start, and either a Greek or Caesar salad, then roast beef sandwiches, some chocolate chip cookies Yolei helped me make, and I've got some bottles of water, a pitcher and some juice mixes to choose from." She reported proudly.

TK had to make sure he heard that right.

"You made a three-course _picnic_?"

A pause.

"Yes."

He grinned. "I _love_ you."

"Yeah, I _am_ pretty cool." Kari sat down unzipping the backpack and setting out the food.

Everything was great. The food was delicious, the conversations were fun, and TK didn't get hit in the head with a Frisbee like did a few weeks before. After they finished eating—and they did eat _all_ of it—TK lay back, his eyes closed, almost enjoying the heat from the sun on his face.

Kari'd lay down adjacent to him, the back of her head resting on his stomach. She sat up, taking a sip of juice.

"So what've you been doing all morning?" she asked, laying her head back down.

He had to think about it.

"Math homework, video games, and lunch." He concluded. "You?"

"Math homework, piano lessons, and lunch." She declared proudly. "Think you can teach me how to play so I can beat Tai? I'm thinking it'll be extra funny if we can do it while he's still interested in it, so he's got no excuse."

TK laughed, thinking about how badly he'd lost earlier. "Yeah, just about." He lied.

He could feel her tilt her head, and he sat up just enough so that she wouldn't have to move anymore. She was grinning at him. "I can still beat you, huh?"

"Almost definitely." TK nodded before laying his head back into his hands. "So what do you have planned for tonight?"

"Girls night with Sora." She said, very matter-of-factly. "We're gonna watch as many depressing girly movies as we can."

TK laughed. "So sorry I'm gonna be missing that."

He always found it funny when she wanted to watch chick-flicks—because whenever a new action movie with more explosions than they could count came out, Kari was all over it. He frequently teased her for being deranged—of course, he _really_ knew she considered it art—she had always been interested in photography, and it led her to enjoying cinematography too—special effects, stunts, and explosions.

A slight stinging in his knee told him that she flicked him. "What about you?" she asked.

"Dinner with Matt and our dad." TK answered.

"Well that'll be nice." Kari noted. She paused. "Does your mom know?"

TK winced. "Eh…Anyone asks, I'm having dinner with Davis and his family."

Kari slowly flipped herself over, her chin resting on his stomach as she looked up at him. "It's that awkward when you tell her, huh?"

He tried to think of the best way to put it into perspective. "Remember a few months ago how we got in trouble making out at school, and I had dinner with you, Tai, and your parents the next day? Pretty close to that."

She actually shuddered. "Let's just go back to repressing that."

It had certainly been an interesting evening—much to TK's relief, Kari's parents weren't mad, and they actually found it funny. However—much to TK and Kari's discomfort—they found it funny enough to joke about for the majority of the evening. It was probably the greatest punishment the two could have been given.

He thought about telling his mom the truth—but he knew it would just make everyone unhappy.

"It just kind of sucks…" TK murmured. "I just don't want her feeling like I'm _ditching _her for dad...I don't know. It's just that she's not dating or anything, so I worry she gets lonely."

Kari paused, evidently thinking about it. "Maybe we can set her up with Davis." She snickered.

He sat up as he laughed, forcing Kari to do the same. "You're disgusting." He declared.

She frowned, nodding.

"Yeah, I'm kind of regretting giving myself that mental picture." Kari sighed. "How much time do we have?" she added casually.

He reached for his phone in his pocket, hoping that it had enough power in it to not shut itself off.

TK switched on his phone, an obnoxious jingle playing as the animated logo appeared in a pale light. The time display at the top was the first thing to load.

"Still plenty of time." He answered happily. "What time you meeting Sora?"

"Mmm." Kari murmured, more to herself than to TK.

He glanced at her, noticing she was staring at her own phone.

"Something up?" TK asked.

She looked up at him, clearly trying to mask her disappointment. "Sora just cancelled tonight."

TK winced, but only for a second, after which he sounded considerably more energetic. "Hey, you should come for dinner. Matt's cooking."

He knew that Kari was a big fan of Matt's food. Hey, _everyone_ was. She looked thoughtful before she nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun." She finally agreed, suddenly looking hesitant. "You sure they won't mind? I don't wanna intrude if it's supposed to be a family-only time…"

"I'm sure." He declared. TK had concluded Kari was literally impossible to hate—his entire family loved having her around.

When the menu on his phone _finally_ loaded, a screen flashed over it: 10 missed calls.

He read the line again, making sure he'd read it right—his phone had only been off for two hours, and nobody _ever_ called him on his cell. Was something—wrong?

It took almost a full minute after he dialed in his password to get to the voicemail menu—probably because the signal was so low where they were. Still, he felt an invisible hand squeezing his gut—all ten messages were from the same number—Matt's number. And TK knew he wouldn't leave ten messages just to cancel.

He selected the message that was most recent, even though they'd all been left in the last hour.

It was static-y, but he could hear Matt's voice. He sounded nervous, causing that same invisible hand to tighten its grip. TK squinted at the blanket, trying to focus on what he was hearing rather than everything around him.

Every third or fourth syllable was 'uh' or 'um'. Not the usual Matt, who always was so cool and collected.

"_Wanted to tell you in person, but I, uh, it doesn't look like you're, uh…"_

Out of his peripheral vision, he could see Kari looking at him nervously, too scared to speak so as to not distract TK from hearing the message, for which he was grateful.

"…_really need to talk to you, and I don't know what to tell mom and dad, because, um…"_

The next few words would have knocked TK off his feet if he'd been standing. When Matt finally finished the thought, there was a short sigh before a beep, and the female voice recording politely asking him if he'd like to save the message. But TK simply turned his phone off, his hand dropping to his lap. Kari placed her hand on his carefully, looking into his eyes even if he wasn't looking back.

"TK…?"

He let his mind process what he'd just heard. He knew he probably shouldn't have told Kari, but he knew she could keep a secret, and to say that TK had been overwhelmed would have been an understatement. So he said it aloud.

"Sora's pregnant."

* * *

Dun dun dunnnnnnn.

Chapter 2 of Cipher and 26 of Code Carter are both about half-done, so they'll be up soon, I hope. And yeah, I know I'm a bad person for having a character's arm hacked off and then not posting what happens next in a timely manner, and posting two stories in between. Working on it, I swear!

Review, please!

-N


End file.
